Most businesses (89%) anticipate their IT budgets will grow or stay the same in 2019. The need to update outdated IT infrastructure is the biggest reason for this. There are so many factors that need to be considered when determining what technology your business should use and how to integrate it into your company. There is no denying that recent technological advancements have helped businesses to grow at a quicker rate than ever before. However, your business will only grow if you choose the right tech and you utilise it effectively. With that being said, continue reading to find out more about the top tech considerations for all businesses today.
Cybersecurity
There is only one place to begin, and this is with cybersecurity. This is a massive concern for businesses all over the world today. After all, there have been more than 14,717,000,000 records stolen since 2013. This equates to 75 records stolen every second, 4,491 stolen every minute, and 269,435 stolen every hour.
The last thing you want is for your business to fall victim to a cybercriminal. However, cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated all of the time, so you need to make sure you have an expert security policy in place and that you continue to work on it all of the time.
Did you know that the vast majority of data breaches and cyber attacks happen due to an insider incident? While there are some cases whereby malicious employees have purposely compromised systems, most of the time these incidents happen because of employee error. This highlights why it is critical to get staff buy-in when it comes to your security policies. You need to explain why cybersecurity is important and how it impacts everyone’s jobs. Once you have gotten everybody on board, you should then provide ample training so that everyone knows how to go about their daily jobs in a secure manner so that they do not do anything that compromises your business.
In addition to this, another pivotal step when it comes to data security at your business is to update software whenever you are prompted or an update becomes available. If an update has been released, it is for good reason. More often than not, software updates are released to patch up security vulnerabilities. If you do not take the steps needed to make your system more secure, you are only leaving yourself wide open to the possibility of a data breach.
Cost savings
Of course, technology represents a business expense, and so you need to consider the financial viability before investing in any new tech for your company. You should make an effort to review your expenditure on tech on a regular basis. There are always savings that can be made. For example, if you buy printer ink from a secondary supplier, rather than buying straight from the source, you should be able to save a considerable amount of money per year. You should also look at negotiating deals by purchasing items in bulk or by integrating different software platforms. Also, certain software solutions can help you to save money because they enable you to make more intelligent business decisions, so you do need to keep this in mind as well. You will be able to compile data and display it in a manner that enables you to determine where savings can be made.
Collaboration
Collaboration is another critical area of consideration when it comes to the business environment today. There are many different tools available in terms of facilitating collaboration, especially when you think about the rise of the virtual workforce. More and more people are choosing to work from home, or at least to do part of their work from home. In fact, data shows that half of the workforce in the UK will work remotely by 2020.
This is why you need to choose a collaboration platform with care so that employees can operate efficiently and have full access to business documents and data no matter where in the world they are. Teams are establishing chat-based, virtual workspaces so that they can collaborate, save documents, call, and chat in real-time, without any restrictions. For employers, this also means that you have the possibility to make the most of remote workers. You can hire someone based on their talent and experience, rather than their location.
Big data
There is more data available to companies than ever before. Big data is a term that is used to describe sets of data that are too complex or too large for your typical IT software and data software to handle. Therefore, you need to determine how you are going to go about using this data so that you can make the most of it at your business. Big data can do wonders for businesses, but only if it is scaled down in the correct manner.
If the data is scaled down efficiently and effectively, it will enable you to extract detailed information about your customers as well as revealing unexpected correlations. Leaping into this sort of technology can seem very intimidating, but in the next few years, you will be very thankful that you made the move. This sort of data puts the power in your hands as a business owner.
As you can see, there are lots of different things for businesses to take into account when it comes to tech today. If you consider the issues that have been presented above, you should be able to get the tech strategy right for your business. After all, there is no denying that the most efficient and successful businesses today are those that have correctly evaluated their operations and needs and chosen tech that will take them to the next level. If you consider everything that has been mentioned above, you can make sure that you fall into this category.
